There are many examples in the prior art of hand-held, insulated containers for hot liquids such as coffee, tea, soups and the like. Examples may be found in U.S. Pat. Nos. 2,266,828, 4,007,670, 5,145,107, 5,460,323, 5,524,817, 5,685,480, and 6,663,926. Each of the containers disclosed there includes an inner cup and an outer shell separated by an air gap. In modern containers of this type, the cup is fabricated of thin paperboard coated inside with a polyethylene resin or the like. The inner cup and outer shell are fastened together by gluing them in strategic locations at top and bottom or, in some recent instances, by heat sealing them together. The air gap between the cup body wall and the shell is conventionally maintained by spacers of varying configuration.